English 115

Searching the Web

Hudson Valley Community College Marvin Library Learning Commons

1

The Internet:

The Internet is a global network in which Information can travel through satellites, cables and phone lines from one computer on the Internet to the next.

The Internet allows you to communicate with people, move files between computers, find and share information.

Who is in charge of the Internet? As a unified, single entity, it has no one owner. There are organizations that determine the Internet's structure and how it works but no one can say they own the Internet. Thousands of people and organizations can control the quality and level of access you have to the Internet.

What is the World Wide Web?

The World Wide Web is the system we use to access the Internet.

The World Wide Web makes use of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) to access the various forms of information available on the world's different networks. We typically access the Web through browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome or Safari. Using browsers, you can visit different web sites and view other online content.

So to explain the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web: the Internet is composed of machines, hardware and data; and the World Wide Web is what brings this technology to life.

Where does Web information come from?

Individuals--anyone, anywhere in the world with access can publish

Companies--advertise, sell products, and publish reports. A .com may stands for a commercial entity.

Organizations--A .org may be a non-profit organization but this is not always true.

Government agencies--federal, state, or local may give access to information and documents. A .gov is a government web site.

Libraries and Universities provide a variety of scholarly resources. A .edu may mean that they have some connection to an educational institution.

When looking for something on the web, start with a search engine. Google has the largest U.S. search engine market share but it is not the only one. Remember that no search engine searches all of the web.

Search Engines:

*Graphic from http://www.softpedia.com/blog/Baidu-Overtakes-Microsoft-s-Bing-as-the-World-s-Second-Most-Used-Search-Engine-478075.shtml

*

6

It is wise to remember a few things about the web: Not all information on the Web goes through a

review process. Anyone can publish anything on the web.

Information on the Web is not permanent. Some information on the Web is not free.When selecting web sites, consider: accuracy, authority, currency, objectivity and appropriateness for college research.

7

Google is a search engine not a fact checker. If you Google “cigarettes are good for you,” it will find web sites supporting that statement. Google Scholar may lead to more scholarly resources for your paper.

Search engines often put their sponsored (businesses that pay) sites first. You can’t tell by the URL if a site is legitimate, although .gov are usually considered reliable.

Use common sense. If you notice misspellings and bad grammar, find another site. Check the credibility of a source on another site.

8

Many professors will not accept Wikipedia as a source but it may help provide keywords and possible legitimate sources (look at References at the end of the entry) that can get you started.